Medium — "The Future of the Open Office Means Saying Goodbye to Your Desk"

'Other offices are taking the blending of private spaces even further, creating workplaces that bleed into their surrounding communities, like the new county government center in San Mateo County, California, being designed by the architecture firm, Studio Gang. The figure-eight shaped building will include terraces and balconies for workers and a public pavilion and garden on the ground, underneath the building. Auditoriums that aren’t being used by the government employees will become open to the public. “It’s really trying to blur the boundaries between inside and outside. Throughout the building, there’s always access to going outside — like balconies, terraces, roof gardens,” she says. “Our approach there was to see if we could enhance or amplify the campus quality, the public space, the green space both for the people that work there and for the city itself.”

“The 20th century was so much about efficiency. And now it’s not only about efficiency, it’s about being able to work and enjoy where you are and to blur between your life and your work a little bit more,” the lead architect Jeanne Gang says.'